With the car industry booming in China, McDonald's Corp (NYSE: MCD) is hoping to cash in by starting to offer drive through service throughout the country. The fast food giant opened its first drive-through restaurant in Beijing today and hopes to see another 25 or so more in the next 12 to 18 months.With the Chinese gobbling up more and more cars it makes sense for Western food chains such as McDonald's to look at taking advantage of a more mobile country. In fact, last year the country saw a 37% growth in its automobile industry, with a remarkable 7.2 million vehicles being sold.
That puts the country at number two behind the United States, overtaking Japan.
McD's has been a player in the Chinese market since 1990, when it opened its first store there, and already has 15 other drive-throughs in the country. The company is expecting to open an additional 100 restaurants this upcoming year throughout the country, with about half of these having drive-through windows. As stated above, 25 or so of these are going to be located inside Beijing.
This news brings new meaning to the slogan "1 Billion Served."
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor'sObserver.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-19-2007 @ 3:30PM
mandarin said...
I was there around 1994 in Beijing and I always look forward to eating in McDonald's. I see a lot more opportunities there for them. Whats the contribution to McDonald's by their foreign branches by the way? Is there way to tell how much is China contributing to the bottom line?